On November 14th the BMW 1 Series officially launched in China. A big fuss was made around the fact that this new range is now, for the first time, assembled solely in the mainland. However, naturally it is the associated ad campaign that caught my attention.
Each campaign poster plays on three famous figureheads to represent key features of the new 1 Series range:
Charles Darwin
The English naturalist who famously proposed the theory of ‘natural selection’ leads to the BMW tagline that ‘Rear Wheel Drive technology ensures the “selection” of a pleasant driving experience’.
Isaac Newton
One of the foremost scientific intellects of all time who famously formulated the law of gravity. Here, BMW rewrites the formula to say ‘Acceleration is determined by the engine’.
William Shakespeare
The greatest playwright of all time, but in this instance the famous line in Hamlet ‘To be, or not to be, that is the question’ is adapted to read ‘Open or folded, it is not a question’.
For those who want to learn more about the new range, here is the Youku promo clip:
Credit to: Leo Burnett (Beijing Branch)
